Environmental Studies Commons^™

Unveiling Microplastic Removal And Characteristics In Wastewater From Two Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities In Indonesia, Nurul Setiadewi, Prayatni Soewondo, Cynthia Henny

Applied Environmental Research

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered an entrance pathways for microplastic (MP) pollution in aquatic environments. This study reveals the removal and characteristics of MPs in wastewater from two municipal WWTPs in Indonesia. The influent contained 17.1 ± 5.65 particles L-1 (WWTP A) and 15.45 ± 4.31 particles L-1 (WWTP B), whereas the effluent contained 1.41 ± 0.01 and 1.5 ± 0.16 particles L-1. The removal efficiency was 91.75% for WWTP A and 90.32% for WWTP B, with no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). WWTP A employed advanced treatment units, whereas WWTP B used a conventional pond-based system. MPs were …

Assessment Of The Influence Of Human Activities On The Occurrence Of Forest Fires In Thailand Via Multiple Linear Regression (Mlr), Sittipong Ruktamatakul, Jirarat Insuk, Benjaporn Pinwongpet, Sarisa Ruktametakul, Pornpis Yimprayoon

Applied Environmental Research

Forest fires represent one of the most critical environmental challenges in Thailand, with impacts varying depending on forest type, fuel characteristics, terrain conditions, fire intensity, and the frequency of fire occurrence on the same landscape. While forest fires can contribute to ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, and the depletion of natural resources, such effects are not uniformly severe across all forest ecosystems. Understanding the human-induced factors contributing to forest fire occurrence is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies and promoting sustainable forest management. This study aimed to identify the anthropogenic factors influencing forest fire areas in Thailand via multiple linear regression …

Effect Of Chromium Doping On The Uv- And Sunlight-Driven Photocatalytic Performance Of Srtio3, Ro’Ikhatul Jannah, Dianisa Khoirum Sandi, Fahru Nurosyid, Risa Suryana, Didier Fasquelle, Yofentina Iriani

Applied Environmental Research

Chromium (Cr)-doped strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) photocatalysts with compositions of SrTi1-xCrxO3 (x = 0, 5, and 10%) were prepared via the coprecipitation method. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Cr doping on structural, morphological, and optical properties. Furthermore, this work aimed to examine the photocatalytic performance of pure and Cr-doped STO against methylene blue (MB) degradation under ultraviolet (UV) and sunlight exposure. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of the cubic STO phase and the insertion of the Cr dopant in the STO structures. Furthermore, Cr doping reduced the lattice constant, crystallite size, and average particle size and narrowed …

A Photographic Exploration Of Humboldt's Coastal Lagoons, Aldaron Laird

Trade & Scholarly Monographs

This visually stunning book shows the same meticulous artistry that Aldaron displayed when depicting Wigi, but it shows places so different from Humboldt Bay that they seem to be of a different world. And in a sense they are, for the imprints of modern Humboldt County are here much less frequent and far, far gentler. Instead, we see the land of the Coastal Yuroks, which in many places is little changed from what it was like before the arrival of the Whites a hundred and seventy-five years ago. The only buildings we see are those of the traditional Yurok style, …

Living With Water In Fields Landing & King Salmon: Community Knowledge Of Flooding And Adaptation Strategies In Coastal California, Kailin Sepp

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Known as “ground zero,” Humboldt Bay is among the most vulnerable areas to sea-level rise (SLR) due to geological and tectonic factors on the West Coast. While the land subsides, oceans rise, resulting in an area with one of the highest recorded rates of relative SLR on the West Coast. The residential communities of Fields Landing and King Salmon in South Humboldt Bay already experience regular coastal flooding. There is a need for better information and planning to understand the vulnerability to flooding/SLR and plan for adaptation. Typically, studies addressing flooding, such as vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans, are developed …

Repairing Estranged Death: Care, Politics And Ecology In The Us Funeral Industry, Cecilia Catherine Rodriguez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The industrialization of death practices in the US has separated humanity from natural cycles while centering white settler colonial norms that marginalize other cultural ways of caring for the dead. Through necropolitics, the contemporary death industry embodies capitalist values of commodification and a monopolization of care, separating death from community and its ecological cycles. Black and Indigenous feminist knowledges understand death as not a discrete event but instead as an ongoing process that shapes our relationships with both the human and more-than-human worlds. Engaging with feminist political ecologies, I extend a conversation about care and repair to contemporary death practices …

Weaponized Borders: A Contrapuntal Analysis Of Uneven Humanitarian Aid And Comparative Landscapes, Alex Orla-Bukowski

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The proliferation of global border regimes has caused an increased level of state violence against humans and the environment. In this thesis I explore how contemporary border regimes propagate myths on human mobility, obstruct humanitarian policy, and weaponize environmental landscapes to sustain state violence while obscuring political responsibility. Building on this, I argue that borders are the source of violence and create systems of vulnerability as a core-function of state making. My research primarily utilizes semi-structured interviews with humanitarian actors and secondary data analysis to trace the testimonies of those subject to state-based harm and explore the gaps in aid …

Reactionary Radicals, Radical Reactionaries: A Review Of Against The Machine: On The Unmaking Of Humanity, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

Paul Kingsnorth, in his book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity, asserts that the ecological destruction, consumerism, and social atomization that have come to define contemporary life are the product of a malevolent force he calls the Machine. This review finds that his proposed solution to these crises, namely a return to "traditional" forms of family and community, insufficiently addresses the material and structural conditions underlying the capitalist mode of production. Kingsnorth’s dismissal of Marxism is then interrogated by juxtaposing his critique of the Machine with Marx’s analysis of estranged labor. Finally, this review concludes that the …

Triangulating Primary Sources, Professional Judgement, And Llm-Generated Summaries: Educating Nurses In An Ai-First World, Sarah Oerther, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Mapping Climate Risks & Building Resilience: A Participatory Approach To Harvester Safety In Kakisa, Nwt., Susan Kerubo Ombwori

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN) community in the Northwest Territories is experiencing rapid environmental changes which are driven by climate change. These changes are threatening the community’s food security. The community is seeing a disruption to its traditional land-based food systems due to increasing climate risks such as unpredictable weather, thawing permafrost, wildfires, and flooding. These changes are reducing access to traditional foods and intensifying threats to harvester safety. Building on the existing relationship with the community through previous projects, this thesis examines the impacts of climate risks on the availability and access of the KTFN’s on the land …

Envisioning The Role Of Community-Owned Stores & Aligning Federal Food Policies: A Participatory Approach To Food Security And Food Sovereignty In Sambaa K’E, Denendeh (Northwest Territories, Canada), Narayan Subramoniam

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Indigenous communities have relied on traditional food systems for meaningful, nutritious diets since time immemorial. But many Indigenous communities in remote northern regions of Canada still face disproportionately elevated levels of food insecurity due to climate change radically altering the availability for traditional foods, colonial food policies imposing Western diets, and the high costs of transporting store-bought foods. Extreme weather events such as wildfires further isolate fly-in remote communities increasing both the costs of transporting store-bought foods and the difficulties of harvesting traditional foods. There are many examples of community-based initiatives for supporting traditional and locally grown foods, however, …

Investigating The Impact Of Winter Exposure To Natural Environments On Perceived Health And Well-Being Using Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment: A Case Study At Arrowhead Provincial Park, Faith M. Laing

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined how winter exposure to specific natural environments influenced perceived health and well-being outcomes using Geographic Ecological Momentary Assessment (GEMA) in Arrowhead Provincial Park. Studies performed in the wintertime are limited, as is our understanding of how specific park features and/or activities impact health and well-being. To address this, GEMA was used with a video component to capture participants’ real-time experience and emotional responses in specific park locations defined by polygon boundaries. Two surveys were administered through participants mobile devices, one being an in-situ engagement survey triggered by entering a bounded location, which included a video and …

Understanding Waste Management Knowledge And Habits Of Senior High School Students In Lianga, Surigao Del Sur, Philippines, Arnele Mie A. Fanuga, Romy M. Avila, Reyl Justine J. Ballena

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The effective implementation of Solid Waste Management (SWM) in educational institutions is challenged by increasing student populations, limited infrastructure, and inconsistent policy enforcement. This study assessed the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) of senior high school students regarding SWM in three secondary schools in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, Philippines. Data were collected using a descriptive-correlational design from 150 students selected through quota sampling. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed significant associations between knowledge and attitude, and between attitude and practice. Knowledge scores were positively correlated across the three secondary schools. Students demonstrated a high level of awareness of the environmental and health …

Lake As Body: Ecofeminism And Animacy At The Great Salt Lake, Shae Barber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Water shapes cultural, social, and ecological systems. Yet, dominant economic, political, and academic frameworks often treat water as a backdrop or passive resource, ignoring it as an active participant in meaning-making and relationship-building. Viewing water as “nonliving” obscures how it participates in and co-creates relationships, limiting understanding about impacts of and responses to climate change and environmental degradation.

This thesis takes a mixed-methods and participatory approach including semi-structured interview, photovoice, and participatory mapping to examine relational practices between environmental advocates and the Great Salt Lake, a desiccating saline lake in Utah, U.S. As the lake continues to decline, dominant Western …

A Psychogeography Of The Lower Colorado River Basin, Arren L. Kimbel-Sannit

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dried-up canals. Superheated strip malls. Proliferating data centers. Infinite appetite for growth despite its apparent circumstances. Arizona may well be the state of the American future. This multi-genre series of essays from Arren Kimbel-Sannit offers a personal, political-economic and ecological critique of growth and accumulation in Arizona — from the perspective of someone who grew up in its suburban expanses, reported on its politics, and long sought to clarify his relationship with home.

Learning In The Wild: A Discourse Analysis Of Literacy Practices And Educational Outcomes In Montana’S Youth Climate Activism, Tyler Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines youth climate activism in Montana as a site of literacy practice, civic learning, and critical climate engagement. Focusing on the University of Montana Climate Response Club, the study asks how youth climate activists use literacy practices to interpret climate issues and participate in civic action, and how those practices reflect elements of critical climate literacy. The study defines critical climate literacy as a set of socially situated practices through which young people read, interpret, question, and respond to climate change as both an environmental issue and a civic problem shaped by power. Rather than treating climate literacy …

Learning For A Sustainable Future: Embedding Sustainability Literacy In Honors Curricula Within Higher Education, Zoe E. Belinda

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This research investigates the sustainability literacy levels of first-year Davidson Honors College (DHC) students at the University of Montana (UM) to develop a baseline for average sustainability knowledge at the beginning of students’ post-secondary education. The goals of this research are to (1) determine if there are differences in sustainability literacy scores between students in sustainability-related fields of study and their counterparts, (2) identify weaknesses in students’ current sustainability literacy, and (3) develop curriculum suggestions to improve sustainability knowledge. To address these research questions, all first-year DHC students in 2024 and 2025 were surveyed using a modified version of the …

Religiosity And Political Affiliation As Moderators For Climate Change Belief, Jenna L. Hiljus

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Climate change remains a polarized issue in the United States despite broad scientific consensus. The present study examined how specific variables within political ideology (social and economic conservatism) and religiosity (belief, praxis, and morality) relate to climate change belief among undergraduate students at a private Christian university. Participants (N = 130) completed measures of climate change perceptions, multidimensional religiosity, and social and economic conservatism. Correlational analyses showed medium-sized, negative relationships between climate change belief and both social and economic conservatism, with no significant difference between the two domains. This finding suggests that political conservatism may operate as a unified construct …

Electric Vehicle Industry: Japan And China, Minoo Tehrani, Yu Cui

Business Faculty Publications

This research concentrates on the electric vehicle (EV) industry in China and Japan. China is the largest and Japan the third-largest auto production country after the U.S. This study explores the current and future transition to battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles in Japan and China. Three Japanese auto companies, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, and BYD from China are studied in this research. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are actively pursuing the development of hybrid electric vehicles in Japan. Meanwhile, the research examines the Chinese EV company BYD, which is a major global competitor in the EV industry. This study …

Public Perception Of Environmental Contamination And Its Implications For Fish And Community Health In West Bengal, India, Libia Hazra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In West Bengal, India, the highest fish-consuming state in the country, fish are woven into everyday life, including ceremonies of birth and marriage, prayers offered during harvesting and the cultural memory of communities whose identities are inseparable from aquatic life. However, the rivers, wetlands, and ponds that sustain these fish-human relationships are increasingly threatened by environmental contamination resulting from industrial discharge, agricultural runoff, and inadequate environmental management. Understanding how communities perceive these environmental changes is essential for developing effective conservation and public health strategies.

In collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT) Kharagpur, India, and Michigan Technological University (USA), …